Faced with the results of a study showing significant cerebral symptoms, scientists suggest that patients with long Covid should be listened to and monitored more.
- A study carried out with long Covid patients shows that 70% of them experience memory problems
- These same patients performed worse on cognitive tests
- Symptoms like this need to be taken more seriously by healthcare professionals, researchers say.
Memory problems, concentration difficulties, loss of cognitive performance, so many symptoms encountered by a majority of patients who are victims of a long Covid and which deserve more attention from health professionals. These are the conclusions of a study carried out by scientists from the University of Cambridge and published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience some results of which are indeed worrying.
The follow-up of 181 patients with long Covid and recruited between October 2020 and March 2021 – the time of the pandemic during which the Alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2 was circulating – shows that 70% of them encounter problems. memory and concentration difficulties, that a significant proportion, more than 60%, obtained lower results on cognitive tests with forgetfulness or problems finding the right word when speaking. And the more serious the form of the disease, the greater these disorders.
Evidence that Covid has an impact on the brain
“People think a long Covid is just tiredness or a cough but cognitive problems are the second most common symptom, reflecting evidence that Covid impacts the brain“, emphasizes Dr. Lucy Cheke, lead author of the article.
To help understand the cause of these cognitive problems, the researchers looked at other symptoms that might be related and found that patients who suffered the most from fatigue and neurological symptoms like headaches or dizziness during of the initial disease were more likely to subsequently experience these cognitive problems. But how to explain it? “Coronavirus infection can lead to inflammation that affects behavior and cognitive performance in ways we don’t yet fully understand but believe is linked to an early excessive immune response“, advances Dr. Muzaffer Kaser, one of the researchers who participated in the study.
Better take into account the symptoms described by patients
The only certainty shared by scientists is the need for all health professionals to better take into account these symptoms when they are described by patients. “ Cognitive difficulties after Covid are not only the result of anxiety or depression, these effects are measurable, so there is an urgent need to take the long Covid more seriously and these cognitive problems are an important part of it”, says Lucy Cheke. Especially since she believes, with the other researchers, that the results of their study “support other findings that suggest society will face a long tail of work-related illnesses due to long Covid“.
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